2002

IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award 2002

The 2002 IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award was given to the project Por el derecho a leer (For the right to read) operated by the Centro de Difusión e Investigación de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil (CEDILIJ), a non-profit organization promoting children's literature in Córdoba, Argentina.

The six-member Award Jury met in Bratislava on 4 September 2001 and selected this project, which was proposed by the Venezuelan Section of IBBY, as the winner out of ten nominees from different countries. The Jury reached its decision after careful consideration of the project's detailed description, needy target-group, large extension and impact as well as its ability to be adapted to other areas of the world.

The project aims at promoting the availability of quality books for children and adolescents belonging to the lower income groups, as well as improving their reading abilities. It also trains mediating adults in those communities which will guarantee a follow-up. It serves schools, community centres and children's hospitals, and efforts are being made to allow it to reach orphanages and young people in care of the authorities. What makes this project special is its aim of fostering reading outside formal education. It makes quality books available to young people in rural areas and inner cities, who have poor access to written material, a fact that leads finally to their inability to fully exercise their human rights. Since 1996, the "For the right to read" project has reached over 72,000 children and 8,500 especially trained mediating adults.

Initiated by IBBY and supported by the Japanese newspaper company Asahi Shimbun, the prestigious IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award of one million Yen has been given annually since 1988 to a group or an institution which by its outstanding activities has made a lasting contribution to reading programmes for children and young people. The Award was presented to the winner at the IBBY Jubilee Congress in Basel, Switzerland, on 30 September 2002.

The other projects nominated for the 2002 Award were

Ein Bücherbus in Nicaragua (A bookbus in Nicaragua), nominated by the Dutch IBBY and supported by the Belgian and German Sections of IBBY

Caring for Young Refugees, Cambodia, nominated by the Japanese IBBY

"Catch Them Young!", National Book Week, Zimbabwe, nominated by the Austrian IBBY